Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar, abbreviated C-RAM or Counter-RAM, is a system used to detect and/or destroy incoming artillery, rockets and mortar rounds in the air before they hit their ground targets, or simply provide early warning.
Existing C-RAM systems have a stated velocity ceiling that is set by the propellant powder load. The U.S. Army is looking forward into the future to a potential replacement for the C-RAM system that will permit a variable muzzle velocity, while maintaining the present velocity ceiling of existing C-RAM. Hybrid electric launchers are one technology that has been proposed as an enhancement or a replacement for conventional propellant powder driven guns. Electrothermal (ET) and Electrothermal-chemical (ETC) launchers use a high current arc to create sufficient temperatures and pressures necessary to accelerate a projectile. The use of a hybrid electric launcher means that velocity variability can be achieved by the next generation C-RAM (by providing a projectile cartridge with a certain designed velocity floor and the ability to “dial-in” additional velocity by increasing the electrical energy imparted into the launcher during firing) to control collateral damage in future urban/suburban conflict environments. Additionally, the use of such a projectile cartridge in a hybrid electric launcher has the potential to remove significant amounts of the mass/volume of hazardous propellant that must be transported, easing the demands on the supply chain.
There is a need for C-RAM systems that easily permit variable muzzle velocities. The proposal described herein does this using a unique projectile cartridge using hybridization technology.